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nydus/Our Mutual FriendPublic

When the body of an unknown man is dragged from the river Thames, a series of complications involving the will of a wealthy man entangle the lives of several Londoners.

Page 1259 of 1266
Table of Contents

XVII

The fair enslaver having fallen into one of her gentle sleeps during the last exposition, nobody likes to wake her. Fortunately, she comes awake of herself, and puts the question to the Wandering chairman. The Wanderer can only speak of the case as if it were his own. If such a young woman as the young woman described, had saved his own life, he would have been very much obliged to her, wouldn’t have married her, and would have got her a berth in an Electric Telegraph Office, where young women answer very well.

What does the genius of the three hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds, no shillings, and nopence, think? He can’t say what he thinks, without asking: Had the young woman any money?

“No,” says Lightwood, in an uncompromising voice; “no money.”

“Madness and moonshine,” is then the compressed verdict of the genius. “A man may do anything lawful, for money. But for no money!⁠—Bosh!”

What does Boots say?

Boots says he wouldn’t have done it under twenty thousand pound.

What does Brewer say?

Brewer says what Boots says.

What does Buffer say?

Buffer says he knows a man who married a bathing-woman, and bolted.

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